Assistant - Legal and Finance (m-f-d)

The Mission

FSC works to take care of our forests and those who rely on them: by protecting plant and animal species, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, forest workers’ safety, and much more. We achieve this through FSC certification, ensuring forests around the world are responsibly managed. For more information on FSC, visit our website at www.fsc.org.

To effectively meet the challenge of protecting the world’s forests, we are committed to ensuring we have the world’s most skilled people working with us. This commitment extends to everyone that works in FSC around the world: from those that lead the design of policies and standards, to those that roll out those same policies and standards on the ground, and to those that provide us with backbone to do our work.

We are currently looking for an engaged Assistant to support the Legal Department and Finance Department.

This position will enable you to work in a very international and culturally diverse environment. You will use your English and German daily. You will gain experience and contribute to the success of a legal department in a unique and dynamic sector and setting.

The Scope

You are the hub of administration and support of the centralized Legal Department with all its business affairs and clients of the FSC Group under direct supervision of the Head of Legal. You will also cooperate closely with the Finance Team led by the Head of Finance with an expected split of 80 (Legal) to 20 (Finance) percent of the activities between the departments.

Main Role and Responsibilities

To carry out general administrative tasks, such as:

• Responding to incoming requests and managing mails.
• Coordinating and organizing meetings and travel arrangements of the teams.
• Managing, organizing, filing and checking completeness of documents of the teams.
• Maintaining databases, e.g., for contracts.
• Checking and processing invoices.
• Taking minutes of meetings.
• Creating Excel overviews, e.g., for statistics, budgets etc.
• Preparing and giving training on internal procedures to staff.
• Supporting colleagues’ deadlines, for example by verifying, tracking and monitoring of deadlines including expiry checks.
• Proofreading contracts and other legal documents (English and German).
• Ensuring the proper translation of documents, for example by engaging external translators.
• Preparing and proofreading of presentations and other overview documents.
• Collaborating with internal and external clients and to prepare related writs, for example cease and desist letters and apostille.
• Supporting trademark enforcement cases by performing search and clearance activities.
• Supporting with procuring legal and financial services at FSC by
  • Responding to internal requests for the purchase of legal services.
  • Conducting RFQ (request for quotation) and RFP (request for proposal) processes for legal and financial services. including review, negotiation, reporting and alignment with the legal and/or finance team.
  • Serving as the liaison person between the procurement team and legal/finance team.
  • Answering questions concerning the proper implementation of the applicable procurement policies and procedures related to legal services.

Qualification, Experience and Skills

• Education and Training:
  • Successful education or training as an Assistant, Secretary, Paralegal, Multilingual Secretary, Office Manager or similar (for candidates from Germany apprenticed to: “Rechtsanwaltsfachangestellte(r)”, “Fremdsprachensekretär/in”, “Bürokauffrau/-kaufmann”, “geprüfte(r) Rechtsfachwirt/in”, “Diplom-Jurist”, “Wirtschaftsjurist” oder vergleichbar).
     
• Working Experience, Style and Skills:
  • At least 2 years of professional experience in working in an administrative position, preferably in in the legal and/or finance and/or compliance department of an organization.
  • Experience in dealing with authorities, external clients, courts and law firms is desirable.
  • Fluency in German and English (spoken and written).
  • Spanish and/or French is a big plus.
  • Be familiar with time management and multitasking even in stressful situations.
  • Service-oriented attitude to work focusing on solving tasks with a strong sense for diligence and accuracy.
  • Ability to work well as a member of a multi-cultural, inter-disciplinary, multi-lingual, global team.
     
• Language and Communication Skills:
  • Good verbal and written communication skills, able to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships.

• Computer Skills – good skills in the use of/experience with:
  • Proficient with the use of the standard software packages (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
  • Experience with contract databases or general knowledge management platforms is an asset.
  • Experience and knowledge of SharePoint, Office 365 / Dynamics 365 and SAP is a big plus.

Terms and Conditions

• Location: Bonn, Germany.
• Starting Date: As soon as possible.
• Working Hours: Full-time - 40 hours per week.
• Duration of contract: 2-year with a possibility for extension.

How to Apply

Please apply via our website by submitting your CV in English. Please do not send any photos of yourself.

The deadline for applications is 09 January 2023.

We will confirm receipt of your application. However, only candidates shortlisted for an interview will be further contacted and will receive notice of the outcome of the selection process. Should you not receive a confirmation of receipt please check your spam filter and if you cannot find it there contact us at recruitment@fsc.org

For FSC, inclusiveness and diversity are important values. As such, we welcome and encourage applications from all backgrounds and are entirely committed to consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age and disability.  

Please be informed, that by applying for this position you automatically accept our Data Protection Information on processing your personal data.

We are looking forward to your application!